We’re back! In this newest, thrilling episode we discuss:
1) The Lost finale. Spoilers abound!
2) Smart Phones and things that are cool about the iPad.
3) Red Dead Redemption, AKA “Grand Theft Horse”. Also, how “Dances with Wolves” isn’t a Western, but “Roadhouse” is.
4) Actors who don’t seem to age, like Keith David and Kevin Kline. (Richard Dreyfuss is not in this club)
5) More Star Wars Episode 1 impressions than you probably care to hear, plus the movies “9” versus “Nine”.
Re: Lost stuff:
Jacob’s metaphor for the island was interesting. Back when I was around 12 and still forced to go to church and all that, I read a series of christian children’s books called the “Cooper Kids” series by Frank Peretti. It was actually a fun series, regardless of the christian stuff. Anyways, the first one was The Door in the Dragon’s Throat. I’m going somewhere with this, trust me.
Basically, there was this big huge circle of sand in some desert. Nothing lived in this circle. No plants, no animals. Completely devoid of life. In the very center was a circular hole, which was called the Dragon’s Throat. A cave of sorts, that went down at a sharp angle. But yeah, this hole/circle of death had been there for as long as anyone could remember. Folklore said that anyone who crossed the line into the circle would die. And apparently some people had in the past. Yeah. Anyways, so, some dude calls in the Cooper dude (who brings his kids with him on everything) to investigate it. He’s kind of an Indiana Jones sort of guy. But, christian. So, they all go there, and through the grace of jebus they cross through the circle and with some climbing equipment go to the bottom of the hole and find this huge cavern. Like, MLB stadium-sized. And at the other end is this HUGE door. And, in it, a massive keyhole. With, I think, the key still in it. They don’t open the door but the key gets stolen, and eventually some bad guy tries to open the door. But the Coopers figured out what it was, and stop him before he gets it open. He had only turned the key, and some evil red light spilled out and they heard like, evil noises. Perhaps voices too, I can’t remember. But yeah, they stopped the dude and re0locked the door and the key disappeared.
The thing Dr. Cooper realized was that it was something out of the Bible. Revelation 9. Here’s the bit (NIV): “The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 3And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth.”
Etc. Etc. So basically that door is meant to release all kindsa bad shit, evil on the earth. Etc. And it wasn’t meant to be opened yet. Not until all the christian end of the world armageddon stuff. So, right. In Jacob’s metaphor, the island is that door (or the cork, if you like).
Also, you guys were talking about musical-related stuff. Do either of you watch Glee? I thought I was going to hate it, but my friend talked me into it. While I could do without some of the teen drama, the show is ridiculous in general and doesn’t take itself too seriously. The songs are fun, and the show is occasionally completely hilarious. Most hilarity is Sue-related (Jane Lynch). If you haven’t seen it, give it a shot. You might actually enjoy it.
That took a long time. hope this episiode is good.
I think a lot of your podcast fans would enjoy your re-enactment of Star Wars Episode I.
I second that. Episode I re-enactment should happen. Especially if Dale plays Padme.
I think I’m kind of partial to Ben’s Padme. He does a good job of emulating the nasal speech that she exhibited as the Queen.
Oh, and the Lost thoughts were interesting to read. Kind of ties into the hole under the island being Hell.
And I haven’t seen Glee, but I’ve heard things!
I vote yes on the re-enactment. Also, you talk about MST3K as though it’s all over but…. http://www.rifftrax.com ! They’ve riffed all the movies you talk about.
I just read on engadget that you guys were right about the keytar. Also your reenacment would probably be better than the original. 😉
Just figured I would correct some of the smart-phone mistakes made on the podcast.
Jones: Windows Mobile is actually currently in a nose dive and is not selling at all. This is because Windows Mobile 6.x is just complete utter crap as they ignored it for years & is based on WinCE, itself a hack of Win95. They also announced they were cancelling it months ago, so no one wants to sell it or buy it, and its successor Windows Phone 7 hasn’t come out yet, so they’ve had months with no viable product on the shelves. It’s market share is being cannibalized by Android & iPhone. That said, Windows Phone 7 looks amazing, better than Android, and for once Microsoft seems to have made some very innovative and good looking features and designs – a first for them since Windows 95.
That said, it still has a large install base b/c it’s so old. Jones said “RIM>Win>Droid>iPhone” in market share, but it is actually 1. RIM (35%), 2. iPhone (28%), 3. Win(19%, it was 26% this time last year), 4. Droid (9%) 5. Symbian (9%). The Droid is NOWHERE near the market share of Windows Mobile, let alone iPhone or RIM, which are both several times higher than Droid. Droid only has 9% market share, and is nowhere near the top (though its sales are increasing every month and its sales over all devices (hundreds of different models) passed the iPhone for one month after the new model iPhone was leaked months before actually going on sale and people held off buying it). Also, 17% of all Verizon customers apparently are holding off buying a new phone anticipating the iPhone coming to Verizon, but now that that still hasn’t happened, Droid’s probably going to get a huge jump.
Also, you had the mistaken impression that the “Droid” is a single phone with a better screen, a physical keyboard, “better apps”, etc. “Droid” marketshare refers to all the devices which run the Android operating system, and many of those phones have shitty resolution, limited app support, no physical keyboards, etc… a wide array of devices. The “Droid” itself has a great screen, but the “physical” keyboard is a single rubber piece that is really hard to use & rips off if you use it with the official case. The Droid, and the HTC Incredible, are not cheaper than the iPhone – they are the same price, except you get less. You only get 0 GB or 8 GB of onboard storage, you have to buy MicroSD cards. And the apps are not “better”. Most of the good ones are ports of popular iPhone apps, and most apps are not up to par on quality with iPhone apps. Android even discourages developers from programing natively, you have to make a webapp – basically a javascripted webpage, that runs on the phone – making it about 10x shittier and 10x slower, just so it will run on as many phones as possible. If you make a good native program like a game, it will run on all the top notch devices, but won’t necessarily run on the shitty devices. And they don’t have 1/10th of the apps the iPhone has, and many of the best ones haven’t been ported over. Saying it has a “better screen” or whatever is moot anyways, the Droid and the HTC Incredible came out about 8 months and 11 months AFTER the iPhone 3GS, so an extra year to get the newest parts. Conversely, the new iPhone4’s screen (and camera and battery) shits all over both of the top Droid devices… simply b/c it’s newer and better designed (except for it’s WiFi failures, apparently).
The best experience and value right now, in my opinion, is offered by a jailbroken iPhone (where you can run apps that you download from anywhere, and not just the store, like a fully functional NES emulator…).
Oh and btw, the “cooler” name… watch for the small print on Droid commercial. Motorola has to pay LucasFilm tons of $$$ to use that name, since they own copyrights on the word “droid” since 1977. 😉 So yeah… easy to get a good name when you take something already popular in pop culture. Maybe they should have named the iPad the PADD instead. 😛
Why are you attacking the android phones? You didn’t even mention the Nexus One, which is near the top in android devices and at the moment easily beats the iphone and is quite comparable to the specs of the new iphone.
And who cares if they have to pay royalties to use the name? Pop culture back from 1977 hardly still applies now, I doubt that has any role in their choice. Even if it was, it looks charming compared to apple’s vicious marketing strategy.
The Win7 mobile has been said to be great, and I don’t doubt it, but Android has a strong outlook as well. With more worthy competitors, apple’s unfair business will undoubtedly be revealed. There are many disgruntled consumers already, as Ben and Jones briefly mentioned.
And here I thought I was nerdy for rambling about Lost.
I always submit myself to these useless discussions, even though I know better, until they fly completely off the handle. 🙂
Remind to never comment on smartphones again… Christ! If you listen to this podcast expecting to hear facts, then you’re in the wrong place. LOL
That said, thanks for the detailed analysis. I still wouldn’t take an iPhone if you gave it to me, but to each their own.
I would however consider something running Android. Then there is the fact that US Cellular (the most kickass cellphone provider in the area I live in) is going to be getting a couple phones that run it next month. Hmmm…
And for those interested in reading about various Lost theories floating around out there. Check the first part of this guy’s analysis…
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20313460_20393488,00.html
Kind of a neat theory so far. I’m curious to see how he ties it off in part two.
Here is a video that helps explain the popularity of Twilight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4uuGvmAxTI
— Chris
Come on Rock Band Devo or Rock Band Emerson, Lake and Palmer. What other bands could suit the keytar better?
Jones: Sry for going after you man, didn’t mean it like an attack. I just get mad when people are misinformed… or stating things as fact which are the opposite of the truth, kinda like watching Fox ‘news’! And it happened to be like the only subject I’ve been really following, since I was trying to make a decision on buying a new phone.
Ryan: Sry I forgot to mention the Nexus One… I hadn’t researched it much, since it’s only on T-Mobile. It’s really only ATT & Verizon in my area, & if I’m not sticking w/ the iPhone, you could damn well bet I wouldn’t be on ATT. I know you can get an unlocked Nexus One for a few hundred extra dollars that would also work on ATT, but… not Verizon, and seems like a waste of money to not get a subsidized phone. But yea the tech specs look pretty good 🙂
And I wasn’t hating on the Android phones, I was objective. I really want to switch b/c ATT’s service has just gotten so bad w/ the flood of iPhone’s at my work – I literally cannot use data during the workday. I went, tried them all out, asked a few friends about them, played w/ em a bit, and was a bit underwhelmed and not excited about having to wait for 32 gb micro sd cards to be released so I could shell out another couple hundred extra dollars for the space I get for free elsewhere, as well as plasticky flimsy devices (the Droid’s keyboard is terrible, damn near unusable, and rips off!), worse/less apps & OS, for the same price! 🙁
They were more impressive than any Crapberry or WinFail devices though. 😉
Awesome intro, just awesome. I think I may have cried a little bit it was so awesome.